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Sunday, December 2, 2012

Dependent Origination / Paticca-samuppada

"'Monks, I will teach you dependent origination. Listen to that and attend closely, I will speak.'

'Yes, venerable sir,' those monks replied.

The Blessed One said this:

'And what, monks, is dependent origination? With ignorance as condition, volitional formations [come to be]; with volitional formations as condition, consciousness; with consciousness as condition, name-and-form; with name-and-form as condition, the six sense bases; with the six sense bases as condition, contact; with contact as condition, feeling; with feeling as condition, craving; with craving as condition, clinging; with clinging as condition, existence; with existence as condition, birth; with birth as condition, aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. This, monks, is called dependent origination.

'But with the remainderless fading away and cessation of ignorance comes cessation of volitional formations; with the cessation of volitional formations, the cessation of consciousness; with the cessation of consciousness, cessation of name-and-form; with the cessation of consciousness, cessation of name-and-form; with the cessation of name-and-form, cessation of the six sense bases; with the cessation of the six sense bases, cessation of contact; with the cessation of contact, cessation of feeling; with cessation of feeling, cessation of craving; with the cessation of craving, cessation of clinging; with the cessation of clinging, cessation of existence; with the cessation of existence, cessation of birth; with the cessation of birth, aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair cease. Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.'"

(The Buddha, from the Samyutta Nikaya 12:1, Pali Canon)

Note: Elsewhere on Buddha Space, paticca-samuppada is translated as 'dependent arising.' This is an alternative rendering of the original Pali into English that I prefer, but in the above text the translator Bhikkhu Bodhi has chosen 'dependent origination.' Both translations are valid, but the latter can appear somewhat cumbersome, and can also imply that the process has already occurred and ceased. In actuality, dependent arising is a continual, moment-to-moment process that only ceases after the realization of nirvana. For a review of the book by Bhikkhu Bodhi that the above translation is excerpted from (p.353), please click here: Review: In the Buddha's Words.